European Innovation Partnership „Agricultural Productivity and

Sustainability“

Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development

Food

Biodiversity Habitats Economic

Viability

Climate Change

Resource-management

BioeenergyBiomass

Supply ChainIntegration

Challenges and Opportunities

Societal Challenges

Prospect:

• Increasing food demand (FAO: plus 70% by 2050)

• Increasing land use competition (bio-mass, bio-energy, nature conservation) and pressures on resources and environment

• Slow-down of growth technological development

Response:

• Increasing agricultural production and productivity in a sustainable manner (resource efficiency and “public goods”)

• Acting across the whole supply change (recycling, reduction of post-harvest loss, and new products)

Requirements:

• Major investment into research and innovation

4

Closing The Innovation GAP

Research

Farming Practice

Interactio

n

5

Needs

Challenge-driven solutions based on:

• pursuing innovation in a cross-sectoral approach, integrating the whole supply chain

• interlinking existing innovation-related measures and initiatives

• facilitating communication among stakeholders and creating workable links between science and practice

• providing EU value added through networking and enhancing complementarity

• achieving synergies and enhancing effectiveness of existing instruments

Means

Rural Development Programmes:

• Cooperation, including pilot and demonstration projects• Business development• Knowledge transfer and advisory services• Quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs• Investment in physical assets

European Union Research Policy (Horizon 2020)

• Applied research enhancing the knowledge base• Clusters of applied innovation actions and multi-stakeholder

projects• Support innovation brokers and innovation centres

Network Function of the EIP

• Interlinking innovation-related actions of Rural Development Policy and the Union Research and Innovation Framework

• Ensuring an effective flow of information and providing advice to partners about the opportunities provided by EU policies

• Exchange on best practice and accompanying research

• Systematic feedback about practice needs to the scientific community

• Exchange with European Technology Platforms (ETPs), European Research Area Networks (ERA-NETs), Joint Programming Initiatives, and other relevant fora

• Interface function of the Standing Committee for Agricultural Research SCAR

What is “Innovation”?

• Innovation means approaches that are new and successfully transformed into practical solutions (second criterion identifiable only ex-post)

• Innovation concerns products, processes, services, manage-ment, or organisational issues (supply or demand driven)

• The substance of innovation can differ by the structure of sector, regionally different states of development, and type of constraint faced (relative nature of innovation)

Implications for Fostering Innovation

• Engaging in innovative approaches implies not knowing the outcome in advance (need for inbuilt failure tolerance)

• The qualifier “innovative” cannot serve as an (ex-ante) eligibility criterion for measures fostering innovation (logical impossibility of defining “innovative” ex-ante)

• Need for defining eligibility for innovation-related measures by type of action

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Possible Themes

• Primary production: technical solutions to increasing productivity and economic viability

• Resource management: eco-system services, soil functionality, water management, and genetic resources (“public goods”)

• Bioeconomy: innovative technology for the bio-based economy; recyling; new products; reduction of post harvest loss

• Supply chain: integrated supply chain solutions; innovation in products and services, logistics, and management systems

• Quality and consumers: food quality, food safety, and healthy lifestyles (consumer information and consumer choice)

Rural Development Policy:

• Knowledge transfer• Cooperation• Pilot projects • Advisory System• Investment

Research & InnovationFramework:

• Applied research• Clusters • Pilot projects• Innovation

brokers

Operational Groups Operational

Groups

Operational Groups

Operational Groups

Operational Groups

Horizon 2020Programming

MemberStates

Programmes

ETPs, ERA-Nets, JPIs,

etc.

EIP Network:• Farmers• Advisors• Enterprises• Researchers• NGOs• etc.

Rural Development

Committee

Rural Development

NetworkSteering Group

Steering BoardEuropean Innovation Partnership

‚Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability ‘

Standing Committee

on Agricultural Research

Thank you for your attention!